Virat Kohli admitted going through depression following his failures on the 2014 tour of England. It was Sachin Tendulkar who then helped him battle that phase.
The India tour of England 2014 was unarguably the most difficult period in the career of Virat Kohli. The India skipper recently admitted that he was battling depression after successive failures in the series and felt alone even while having his teammates around him. It was an advice from Sachin Tendulkar at that point in time that helped Kohli ‘open up his mind’.
Kohli and Tendulkar both belong to two different eras of cricket. Yet, the current India skipper got the opportunity to share the dressing room with the cricketing icon in a total of 31 ODIs and 17 Test matches from 2009 to 2013.
In a chat with renowned broadcaster Mark Nicholas on his podcast ‘Not Just Cricket’, Kohli revealed how Tendulkar opened up his perspective towards such issues and helped him tackle the depressed state of mind that he was struggling to cope with.
“I did have a chat with him about the mental side of things as well and the thing that he told me was, in cricket what he experienced was if you are going through a strong negative feeling and if that is coming into your system regularly, it is best to let it pass. If you start fighting that feeling, it grows stronger. So, that is the advice I took on board and my mindset really opened up from then on,” Kohli said.
Over the years Virat has emerged as one of the most sought-after cricketers in the world, not just in terms of his performances on the field but also his approach towards the game. On being asked, Kohli admitted that he did feel depressed during those days of struggle in England. The prolific batsman had even started to question himself as he was feeling helpless with little to no clue as to what he could do to overturn things.
“I did (feel depressed). It’s not a great feeling when wake up knowing that you won’t be able to score any runs and I think all batsmen have felt that at some stage or the other that you are not in control of anything at all. And you just don’t understand how to get over it. I think when you look back at a very difficult phase, you realize that you had to go through that phase fully to be able to understand what is wrong and rectify and move forward and open yourself up for change. That was a phase where I literally couldn’t do anything to overturn what I was going through. I felt like I was the loneliest guy in the world,” said Kohli, recalling the England tour back in 2014.
Fast-forwarding to the present, Kohli has established himself as one of the most astute minds in the sport who is known for his leadership, passion and energy that also rubs on others.
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